emmys 2018

Full Frontal’s Emmy Nominations Seem Like a Big Middle Finger to the G.O.P.

Samantha Bee was one of three late-night hosts to earn nominations for not only outstanding variety talk show, but also writing and direction, alongside juggernauts Stephen Colbert and John Oliver—despite Republicans’ quest to torpedo her show after her segment calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c--t.”

Samantha Bee and the entire Full Frontal team should be feeling pretty great right now. The TBS show scored four major Emmy nominations on Thursday morning, and was one of only three series to earn the triple crown of late-night nods: outstanding variety talk show, writing, and direction. (The other two series to pull that off? The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, currently the No. 1 show in late night, and TV Academy favorite Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.)

In any year, such an achievement would be cause for celebration—but this year, it’s extra special. Emmy voting opened up just after Republicans launched a campaign to gut Bee’s show, after she called Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt” during a segment about migrant children being separated from their families at the border. Given the way the horrifying saga of the asylum seekers has continued to develop, Bee’s Emmy success feels like vindication—and a big middle finger to those on the right who clamored for her cancellation.

In total, Full Frontal received seven Emmy nominations this year: four for the series itself and three for its Puerto Rico special, “The Great American* Puerto Rico (*It’s Complicated).” In a statement released by TBS, Bee wrote, “It’s been an interesting year for the show, to say the least, and none of it would have been possible without each person on my staff and each suit at TBS (it’s O.K. to say that—they’re very nice suits!). TBS bravely put a woman over 45 on TV, and in turn I only got yelled at by the president once. We have some seriously special people on our staff, and hearing them go crazy in the office right now is just the medicine this world needs.”

This year’s late-night Emmys race took a few surprising turns on Thursday morning. While shoo-ins Stephen Colbert and John Oliver each got their due, Bill Maher and HBO failed to earn any nominations for Real Time—a show that is nearly always recognized by the Academy. (Oliver took home the most nominations in late night this year—nine.) And although Jimmy Kimmel picked up considerable steam last year thanks to his newly political focus on topics like health care and gun control, Jimmy Kimmel Live! only received two nominations. It did not, as Bee did, earn recognition for direction or writing. And then there was NBC’s lineup: like last year, both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers were largely shut out. (Meyers once again earned a nod for writing and nothing else, while Fallon’s Tonight was shut out of the major categories for the second year in a row.)

In May, soon after ABC fired Roseanne Barr for making a racist comment about Valerie Jarrett on Twitter, Bee made a joke that stirred up a similar amount of controversy. In a segment about migrant children being separated from their families as they sought asylum at the southern border, Bee commented on Ivanka Trump’s tone-deaf decision to post a photo of herself with her own son on social media: “You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another: do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless cunt!” Bee said. “He listens to you! Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to fuckin’ stop it.”

Quickly, Republicans seized on the opportunity to equate Bee’s comment to Barr’s, asking why the late-night host’s was acceptable while the sitcom star’s got her fired. Both Bee and TBS swiftly apologized, but the story continued to dominate the news cycle for days. Comedians like Jon Stewartdefended Bee, accusing Republicans of voicing their offense in bad faith. In the end, as she addressed the controversy one last time on air, Bee offered a smart takeaway: “I’m really sorry that I said that word, but you know what? Civility is just nice words. Maybe we should all worry a little bit more about the niceness of our actions.”

As the immigration story has continued to unfold—with many migrant children still separated from their parents, and no clear plan to reunite them—the controversy Bee faced has been increasingly revealed for what it was: a trumped-up distraction. With its nominations, the TV Academy has voiced its support for both Bee and the work Full Frontal does—and sent the message that it will continue to do so, regardless of what the G.O.P. has to say about it.